Sunday, March 20, 2011

Rip offs have long been a rampant danger within the creative sector, but lately the collective perception of what's o.k. seems to be heading off the deep end. As inequity rises in all aspects of our world, individuals backed by companies with money and/or media power seem less and less cognisant of the independent creator's right to- and, more importantly, need for- recognition for the work they have created.

Typically for an independent company, we've felt the wrath of this crap ourselves; in fact, while we usually try to ignore such situations in relation to Mandate, we might have to talk about a few here soon. Today, though, we'd like to call your attention to the frustrating recent experience of a good friend of ours, poet and performance artist Kate Durbin. Below please find her description, reposted verbatim from her blog, of what went down. While coincidence must always be considered in cases like this, we think what really happened is pretty clear, and clearly uncool.

(BTW, thanks in advance for reading! The only way us little guys can combat shit like this is by standing up for one another, and refusing to let creative theft become accepted as status quo.)

I am a Los Angeles-based poet and performance artist. Since October of 2009 I have been incorporating felt letters into my performances, on top of couture designed by Carissa Ackerman of the NYC design house Mandate of Heaven. These felt letters displayed the words POEM and POETRY, and have been well-documented on my blog and website.

On Dec 21, 2010, I received an email from someone at O, the Oprah Magazine. Here is that letter, along with the entire series of responses.

***

Hi Kate,

We're dedicating our Spring issue to poetry and doing a fashion shoot in the new year about up and coming poets. I was wondering if you'd be interested in being considered-if so could you stop by the Hearst Building and meet with me? I’m here 12/22-12/23 or 12/29-12/30 9:30-6pm. Thank You!

Morgan

***

Dear Morgan,

Wow--this sounds absolutely thrilling! I am, however, in Los Angeles and not New York. Is there any way to do a shoot here? I could meet with you via phone or Skype as well for the interview portion.

If not, perhaps I could find a way to make it to New York since this is such an exciting opportunity, but it would of course be a bit tricky at this time of year. Let me know what you think. I'm at [phone number] if you want to call.

Cheers,

Kate Durbin

***

Hi Kate,

Thank you for getting back to me-right now we are focusing on the tri-state and are not budgeted for travel but if we expand our search I’ll get back to you.

Thank you,

Morgan

***

Dear Morgan,

That's too bad. I would however be willing to fly to NY for the photoshoot on my own dime, we'd just have to do the initial interview via other means (Skype, phone call, etc).

I assume you've seen my costumes on my website or even better my blog, but they could give you an idea of my performance persona. If you scroll down the right hand side of the blog (www.katedurbin.blogspot.com) you'll see the listing under "Fashion."

Either way, it's very exciting that the Oprah magazine is dedicating a feature to poets!

Perhaps by thank you Morgan meant—thank you for giving us such a great idea to steal for the magazine shoot, L.A. poet. These are two of the images from my blog’s Fashion section, which I directed Morgan to:

Below you will see one of the images that appeared in the magazine, suspiciously bearing black felt-looking letters. Unfortunately it won't let me paste the rest of them, but you can click the link below to see them. Camille Rankine's hair piece in particular reminded me of Amaranth's and my Excess Exhibit poufs below, combined with the felt letters above.

Is this all a coincidence? It’s possible. The editor may have seen felt letters in Joanne's Fabric store and felt inspired, and perhaps he never even browsed my blog's Fashion section. Either way, the entire thing left me with a bad taste in my mouth, and I usually love Mama O.